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Mini: The Tongue Map · Why We Do What We Do

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: You're listening to Why we do what we do?
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  Speaker 2: Welcome to Why we do what we do Mini. I'm
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: your host Abraham and I'm Shane, and this is a
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  Speaker 2: mini so we're gonna jump into it pretty quickly. But
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: I'll let you know that this is a short form series.
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  Speaker 2: We release on Mondays, and if you'd like to support
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  Speaker 2: the show, you can leave us a rating or review,
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  Speaker 2: like a subscribe, joined Patreon, pick up some merch.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: I'll talk more about that at the end.
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  Speaker 2: We are talking about body parts today, or one body
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  Speaker 2: part in particular.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, we are talking about your tongue.
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  Speaker 1: Now.
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  Speaker 2: We have talked about food, we have talked about chewing,
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  Speaker 2: we have talked about tasting. We have talked so much
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  Speaker 2: about the gastro intestinal or gastro aspects of being human
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  Speaker 2: in various ways, and we'll keep talking about them because
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  Speaker 2: there's kind of a lot there. But specifically we're talking
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  Speaker 2: about tasting here and the types of things that we
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  Speaker 2: can taste.
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  Speaker 3: And specifically we are going to talk about the tongue
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  Speaker 3: map and that thing that persists where we have the
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  Speaker 3: bitter and the salt and the sweet and the umami
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  Speaker 3: and all the things that in the sour all the
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  Speaker 3: things that go along on those different maps, those different
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  Speaker 3: regions of the tongue.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a myth busting episode, so be prepared. Yeah, okay,
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  Speaker 2: Taste is a funny thing. It is one of our
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  Speaker 2: driving factors around our choices of when and what we eat.
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  Speaker 2: But you might be then thinking about how does our
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  Speaker 2: tongue taste things. You've likely seen a picture of this
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  Speaker 2: tongue that has a sort of map on it for
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  Speaker 2: where the different experiences of taste live. But the whole
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  Speaker 2: concept of taste by itself is very long and complex
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  Speaker 2: and interesting and possibly worth an entire episode length. But
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  Speaker 2: today we're just going to talk about the tongue specifically,
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  Speaker 2: because there are other aspects to taste besides your tongue
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  Speaker 2: and this map idea here.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, So if you look at a map of the
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  Speaker 3: taste receptors of the tongue, you'll see that our tongue
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  Speaker 3: is divided neatly into regions for specific receiving taste profiles.
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  Speaker 3: So salt in the front, sweet just behind the salty
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  Speaker 3: kind of towards the middle of the tongue, sours on
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  Speaker 3: the sides, Bitter is in the back of your tongue.
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  Speaker 3: Like on the back of your tongue, closer to your throat,
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  Speaker 3: in the back of your throat, and new mommy is
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  Speaker 3: in the very middle meani portion of the tongue.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, except that that is one hundred percent wrong. How
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  Speaker 2: would that even work? So like if you imagine if
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  Speaker 2: I took a sour candy and put it on the
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  Speaker 2: salty part of the tongue, would you not taste it?
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  Speaker 1: Of course not, that's not how that works. Now.
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  Speaker 2: The idea of the tongue map originated with German researcher
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  Speaker 2: David P. I'm gonna say Hannig or something like that,
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  Speaker 2: in a nineteen oh one paper with a German name
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  Speaker 2: I'm not going to try and read, but essentially this
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  Speaker 2: is where he published it. He came up with this
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  Speaker 2: taste map based on other psychological studies and he did
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  Speaker 2: these himself as well, And essentially what he was doing
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  Speaker 2: is they were looking at different sensitivities to the flavors
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  Speaker 2: of salt, sour, sweet.
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  Speaker 1: And bitter.
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  Speaker 2: And he reported here that humans have higher sensitivities to
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  Speaker 2: different flavors at different parts of the tongue. And he
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  Speaker 2: drew this interesting schematic of the tongue. But What was
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  Speaker 2: important here is he was saying sensitivities not exclusive regions
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  Speaker 2: of so it'd be like, you will taste a salty
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  Speaker 2: thing anywhere in your tongue, but it seems to be
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  Speaker 2: particularly sensitive toward the front of your tongue, is sort
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  Speaker 2: of how he described.
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  Speaker 3: It, right, And so those flavors that he found that
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  Speaker 3: we had sensitivites too were salt, sour, sweet, and bitter.
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  Speaker 3: And he depicted this in a crude diamond like tongue
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  Speaker 3: drawing with lines delineating the vary sections of the tongue.
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  Speaker 3: And so when you look at it, it looks like
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  Speaker 3: basically there's the tongue and there is a singular point
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  Speaker 3: in the middle, and then there are dotted lines that
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  Speaker 3: go out from that to kind of divide it, almost
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  Speaker 3: as if the beams from Dark Tower were dividing the earth.
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  Speaker 2: That is actually a very good analogy. Yes, if you've
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  Speaker 2: read that series, that is what looks like all things
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  Speaker 2: sort of the beam exactly right. So he had this idea,
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  Speaker 2: he basically tested this, other people tested this, and he
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  Speaker 2: just reported how the fact that there are certain parts
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  Speaker 2: of the tongue where people seem to be more sensitive
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  Speaker 2: than certain flavors than others. But of course you use
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  Speaker 2: your whole tongue to taste everything, but there might be
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  Speaker 2: parts that maybe have a slight speciality there.
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  Speaker 1: Then Edwin G.
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  Speaker 2: Boring comes along in his nineteen forty book on Perception,
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  Speaker 2: and he really oversimplifies this tongue map into these very
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  Speaker 2: discrete tasting areas, showing essentially not only that they're more sensitive,
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  Speaker 2: but that's the only thing that you can taste on
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  Speaker 2: that part of your tongue, and the only part of
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  Speaker 2: your tongue that you can taste those particular flavors. And
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  Speaker 2: this was based on nothing. He completely made this up.
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  Speaker 2: He just took that work that was done by that
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  Speaker 2: German psychologist and was like, hey, I'm just gonna rewrite this,
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  Speaker 2: and he sort of taxonomized the tongue and to these
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  Speaker 2: very specific, neatly linear, outlined spaces.
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  Speaker 3: Could you imagine going to a lecture from doctor Boring.
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  Speaker 3: What are you doing today, I'm going to a Boring lecture?
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  Speaker 2: Yes, oh man, speaking of Boring, here's some ads.
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  Speaker 1: All right, we're back.
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  Speaker 2: We've been talking about this idea of the tongue map
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  Speaker 2: that started with ranking sensitivities and then moved to like
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  Speaker 2: clearly delineated taxonomies with no overlap.
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  Speaker 3: So at this point in time, research has powerfully and
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  Speaker 3: thoroughly debunked this idea of this tongue map. Not only
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  Speaker 3: do we have different taste receptors all over our tongue,
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  Speaker 3: we can even taste in our gums and the roof
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  Speaker 3: of our mouth. Even when researchers deaden the nerves that
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  Speaker 3: carry taste, patients still accurately reported some tastes.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so, like, it's clear the tongue map is wrong.
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  Speaker 2: You can deaden the nerves of like salty, the salty
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  Speaker 2: part part of your tongue quote unquote, and they'll still
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  Speaker 2: taste salty, of course, because we've got these taste bud
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  Speaker 2: receptors all over our whole entire tongue. And although they
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  Speaker 2: might be more sensitive to certain flavors than other, they
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  Speaker 2: are taste receptors.
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  Speaker 1: They get everything.
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  Speaker 2: So for this, for some reason, this idea has not
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  Speaker 2: only made a comeback, this idea of like the taste
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  Speaker 2: map with the clearly delineated places, but it's even being
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  Speaker 2: taught in schools, almost certainly Florida schools. Sure, so, of course,
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  Speaker 2: if you have been taught this, You have been lied to,
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  Speaker 2: and you don't even have to take our word for it.
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  Speaker 2: Go do your own experiment. Put different flavors in different
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  Speaker 2: parts of the tongue and see if they magically disappear
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  Speaker 2: depending on where you put it. Now, of course, don't
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  Speaker 2: eat anything dangerous. Don't do this with tidepods. Don't try
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  Speaker 2: and make someone else do this. Do it with yourself,
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  Speaker 2: with actual food that's safe to eat and that you're
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  Speaker 2: not allergic to, and just try it, and you will
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  Speaker 2: see that you can taste everything on every part of
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  Speaker 2: your tongue, although there might be parts that are a
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  Speaker 2: little more sensitive than others, a little more.
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  Speaker 3: Right now, we do have different taste receptors, that is true.
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  Speaker 3: Some receptors may be somewhat more narrow with respect to
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  Speaker 3: what flavors they are sensitive to, and some people are
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  Speaker 3: more or less sensitive to flavors in general. So it's
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  Speaker 3: not just that like every human is sensitive to this
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  Speaker 3: particular flavor. Like there are some people that can't stand sour,
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  Speaker 3: there's some people that can tolerate way more sour flavors
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  Speaker 3: and different types flavors that they experience. So it's really
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  Speaker 3: kind of unique to every person exactly.
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  Speaker 2: And our taste receptors, as I mentioned, they're all over
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  Speaker 2: our entire tongue. It really wouldn't make evolutionary sense to
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  Speaker 2: have taste receptors divided into isolated parts of our tongues,
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  Speaker 2: Like why why Our tongues help reinforce eating behavior, which
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  Speaker 2: is good when you're in a food scarce environment such
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  Speaker 2: as our ancestors would have been, and maybe less good now,
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  Speaker 2: but it is. It is generally good for most creatures
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  Speaker 2: that they have that sense of taste. Our tongues also
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  Speaker 2: help us determine the relative nutrient quality of the food
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  Speaker 2: that we're eating and the safety of that food. That is, like,
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  Speaker 2: if they're eating something that has noxious flavors or like
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  Speaker 2: chemically tastes, then we're likely to spit it out because
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  Speaker 2: our taste buds are warning us this is probably not
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  Speaker 2: something you should be putting in your mouth. So our
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  Speaker 2: tongues kind of have a variety of reasons, and our
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  Speaker 2: sense of taste likely has the benefit the evolutionary benefit
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  Speaker 2: of warning us when we're eating something that is going
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  Speaker 2: to be dangerous.
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  Speaker 3: Right now, children do tend to be less tolerant of
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  Speaker 3: bitter flavors and are more motivated to consume sweet and
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  Speaker 3: fatty flavors, But the difference likely has to do more
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  Speaker 3: with our experiences and culture, as we learn to enjoy
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  Speaker 3: flavors that we would have hated as kids, such as coffee, tea, beer,
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  Speaker 3: and wine. Things like that.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly so, just as a thing to note.
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  Speaker 2: And then, of course, animals are going to have different
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  Speaker 2: taste receptors based on the kinds of foods that they consume. So,
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  Speaker 2: for instance, oblig at carnivores such as cats, they might
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  Speaker 2: actually not have taste receptors that can detect sweetness. Isn't
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  Speaker 2: that wild because they would never need to seek out
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  Speaker 2: sweetness as part of their diet. And it's not like
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  Speaker 2: it necessarily toxic to them either, at least many of
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  Speaker 2: them wouldn't be. But they probably taste the toxic parts
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  Speaker 2: if there were something toxic, but like, they're not gonna
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  Speaker 2: they're there. Chewing behavior is unlikely to be reinforced by
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  Speaker 2: sweetness because they their obliget carnivores, they only.
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  Speaker 3: Eat meat, right, absolutely, So why does this thing keep
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  Speaker 3: coming back? Like, if we've debunked this, shouldn't we as
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  Speaker 3: a scientific nation and as a scientific community have accepted
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  Speaker 3: the fact that the tongue map does not exist. I wish.
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  Speaker 3: I think one reason that this likely persists is that
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  Speaker 3: we do. I think we like we tend to enjoy simple, elegant.
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  Speaker 1: Organized designs.
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  Speaker 2: I think there's an appeal to it that helps us
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  Speaker 2: look at the world and say, ah, I see how
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  Speaker 2: this thing is is sort of segmented, I see how
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  Speaker 2: this works, and it feels good to have something that
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  Speaker 2: looks tidy and neat like that.
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  Speaker 3: Right. It also has a surprising wow factor that has
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  Speaker 3: this feeling like we learned or that we learned something new.
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  Speaker 3: So you get this kind of like this really quick
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  Speaker 3: snippet of information that sounds really scientific and sounds like
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  Speaker 3: it could be plausible, and you go, oh, yeah, this
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  Speaker 3: is great, and you start sharing it and you know, like,
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  Speaker 3: like we've said before, misinformation or alike, and walk around
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  Speaker 3: the globe before we the truth has time to put
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: its shoes on. Yeah, I know, I butchered that phrase,
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  Speaker 3: but like it's one of those things where it's like
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  Speaker 3: it's so easy to disseminate so quickly.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it sounds like, oh wow, that's interesting, and
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  Speaker 2: you can sort of see it making sense. It's like
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: people say that we I think it's we yawn because
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: our brain isn't getting enough oxygen. That's not true. That's
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: not why try stifling a yawn and see if you
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: die of asphyxiation. Yawning is complex, but it's not because
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: our brains like oxygen. But that has a similar sort
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  Speaker 2: of wow factor where people are like, right, oh, I
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  Speaker 2: get it, Like that's why, and so then they they're
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  Speaker 2: responding to something that gives them an explanation about something
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  Speaker 2: they didn't have an explanation. But the other thing is
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  Speaker 2: like it feels intuitive. I think this idea of the
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  Speaker 2: tongue map. We can kind of like lowm onto that
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  Speaker 2: idea because it's not it doesn't feel like a stretch.
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  Speaker 2: And we might notice that we feel really tart sourness
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  Speaker 2: mostly like the sides of our mouth. We might notice
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  Speaker 2: that we get a strong sense of bitter in the
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  Speaker 2: back of our mouths, and so like, we can glom
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  Speaker 2: onto these ideas because our experiences can corroborate to some
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  Speaker 2: extent the claims that are being made. The claims that
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: made are not one hundred percent wrong, they're also just
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  Speaker 2: not one hundred percent right. I did say there are
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  Speaker 2: a hundred percent wrong before right, But it's more about
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  Speaker 2: the fact that there are different sensitivities. But again, that
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  Speaker 2: also does have to do with the cultures that you're
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  Speaker 2: raised in, like the different flavors that you're used to.
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  Speaker 2: And I think a lot of people will have had
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  Speaker 2: the experience to traveling the other cultures. They eat foods
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  Speaker 2: and they're like, oh, how could you eat that? And
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  Speaker 2: the people there, right, this is my absolute favorite dish.
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  Speaker 2: So like what you grow up with will help shape
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  Speaker 2: those experiences. Our tongues do have these somewhat specialized regions
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  Speaker 2: kind of, but our tongues are completely covered in taste
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  Speaker 2: buds and they used to great effect for evolutionary purposes. Absolutely,
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: all right, Well, hopefully another myth busted. I think that
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  Speaker 2: is all we have to say about tongue maps the wrong.
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  Speaker 2: Stop telling people that they're right, because they're wrong, and
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  Speaker 2: you're wrong.
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  Speaker 1: For tom that the right.
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  Speaker 2: And if you believe it or you've been heard this,
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  Speaker 2: you've been lied to. We're telling you that the reality now,
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: so go forth with that knowledge in your mind. Is
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: there anything that I messed I think you like to add,
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  Speaker 2: Shane before we wrap this one up.
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  Speaker 3: Nope, I think that covers it all right.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: I'll do the quick social media plug obligation things, which
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: is that if you'd like to support us, you can
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: leave us a rating and review, you join us on Patreon,
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: which means you get behind the scenes content, and I'll
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: read your name on full length episodes. You can email
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: us to tell us your experiences about tongue Maps by
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: emailings at info at wwdwwdpodcast dot com, and you can
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: reach us on the social media platforms including Blue Sky.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: We're over there.
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  Speaker 2: But I think that is all that we have to
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  Speaker 2: say here. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: for recording with me today. Shane anytime, All right, This
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: is Abraham, This is Shane.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: Why we Do what we Do? Mini is out II.
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  Speaker 1: You've been listening to Why We Do what We Do.
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  Speaker 3: going to WWD e.
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  Speaker 3: Thanks for listening, and we hope you have an awesome day.